http://www.jstor.org/stable/40025062?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=kneeling&searchText=figure&searchText=hatshepsut&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dkneeling%2Bfigure%2Bhatshepsut%26amp%3Bprq%3Dbull%2Blyre%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone%26amp%3Bso%3Drel%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bhp%3D25%26amp%3Bwc%3Don&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
This blog post will be a formal analysis reviewing two of the three figures that Rebecca and I presented in the library’s Turman Room today during class. The figures we chose were all similar in design but there are changes in detail over the course of the Egyptian era reflected in the art. This formal analysis will describe the artifacts as well as discuss the departure from figurative representation characteristic of early Egyptian art to more naturalistic forms while maintaining some constants that became canon in representing the authorities of Egypt’s kings and queens.
The figure above is the Kneeling Figure of Hatshepsut. In our research we were surprised to find that this sculpture in round depicts a female. The characteristics of the figure are all masculine from the headdress to the anatomical features. Despite the relatively active role women were permitted in Egyptian civilization, including rulership as in the case of Hatshepsut, the canon had already set a precedence of associating power with phallocentric imagery which may explain the culture’s initial reluctance in this case to portray women with authority. Hatshepsut was not the first or last women to be a queen of Egypt and you will see in the next figure another women portrayed as queen but with markedly different design choices. In this representation, there are several canonical traits that were associated with power. The idealized image was very masculine as seen by the broad and muscular body depicted despite this figure having supposed to portray Queen Hatshepsut. As this piece was recovered within her tomb, the pots she holds in this figure are speculated to very likely represent the pots that were buried along with the dead containing various bodily organs such as the heart that they believed would be weighed to judge them in the afterlife by the god of death. The other possible interpretation of the balancing of the two pots in her hands was to symbolize her trying to keep balance between lower and upper Egypt throughout her rule, a challenge faced by many kings and queens of Egypt.
The above image is a bust of Nefertiti whose reign was over a century after Hatshepsut’s rule. Since then the aesthetic has become more naturalistic. Still, the canon of recognized symbol of authority portrays a heavily adorned ruler, the difference being the departure from exclusively masculine imagery as in the case of the headdress. Whereas Hatshepsut was depicted as a male figure, Nefertiti is very obviously represented as the woman that she was and one could speculate that to suggest the increasing openness to women in their society at least as far as recognizing the queens. Such naturalistic form was precedingly reserved for artists’ depictions of the lower class while the canonical depiction of Egypt’s kings ad queens had been predominantly figurative and stylized representations.